Corsica: A court in Corsica has decided to uphold a ban on the Islamic swimming costume, the burkini, despite a top administrative court overturning it last month.
According to a report in the Independent, the judge ruled in favour of the ban on burkini from beaches in the town of Sisco, due to an incident related to the clothing, which had allegedly disrupted public order.
On August 16, a brawl had broken out between locals and three Moroccans over reports that people were taking pictures of women wearing the controversial swimsuit.
"Given the events of 13 August, the presence of a woman wearing a swimsuit covered by the ban of 16 August in certain circumstances can generate an averse risk to public order which is up to the mayor to prevent," the judge said.
However, France's top administrative court had only last month overturned a ban on burkinis, in a decision Friday that was expected to set a legal precedent regarding a swimsuit crackdown that has divided the country and provoked shock around the world.
The ruling by the Council of State specifically concerned a ban on the Muslim garment in the Riviera town of Villeneuve-Loubet, but the binding decision was expected to impact all the 30 or so French resort municipalities that have issued similar decrees.
The bans grew increasingly controversial as images circulated online of some Muslim women being ordered to remove body-concealing garments on French Riviera beaches.
Lawyers for a human rights group and a Muslim collective challenged the legality of the ban to the top court, saying the orders infringe basic freedoms and that mayors have overstepped their powers by telling women what to wear on beaches.
Mayors had cited multiple reasons for the bans, including security after a string of Islamic extremist attacks, risk to public order, and France's strict rules on secularism in public life.
